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Serenity now! Jim Watson had a George Costanza moment and taxpayers should be worried.

The famous “yada, yada” popularized on Seinfeld is what you say at the end of a story to downplay the details. The irony being that the details are actually the crux.

On Dec. 5, Jim Watson announced the selection of the Rideau Transit Group as the winning bidder for the $2.1-billion LRT project.

There was much to be excited about. The project would come in on time and on budget. Best of all? The contractor will cover all cost overruns — “all of the risk transfer the city required of it.” Time for a photo op.

The yada, yada moment?

The mayor said this on CTV following the press conference: “The vast majority of the project is protected. There are certain elements that we have responsibility for, but they’re very minor in terms of the overall risk to the taxpayer.”

Certain elements?

This is not a gotcha moment, although the public would be right to feel a bit mislead by the mayor’s initial statement. After all, it’s all included in the report going before council meetings on Dec. 12 and 19.

As Jon Willing reports, the city will bear the burden of any surprise artefacts, at risk species, contamination and more.

No, this is just a reminder that talk is cheap and it’s the fine print you sign to — or vote on — that’s important. After all — as anyone who has purchased a condo can tell you — flashy promotional graphics are meaningless unless they’re written into the contract.

But hang on a second. Council isn’t voting to approve the fine print.

They are just voting to approve the funding and to “delegate to the City Manager the authority to negotiate, approve, execute, deliver, amend and extend the Project Agreement and associated ancillary agreements for the OLRT project, the Highway 417 widening project and specific related civic works on and subject to the terms and conditions described in this report.”

So they’re voting for someone else to approve the project ... or amend it to be different then approve the amended agreement. And this is the biggest city project ever.

Is this standard procedure? Yes and no.

Council routinely votes on minor projects without knowing the nitty-gritty details. In truth, they are just approving the basics — things like land use and the budget cap; staff then go off and make it happen.

Yet for the final Lansdowne Park vote on Oct. 10, the appendix included full contracts on everything from the OSEG master agreement to the CFL and 67’s partnership agreements.

Considering how big of an issue this was to the city and public alike, presenting these documents only makes sense.

So is it possible for the LRT voting process to likewise include full documentation?

The director of the rail implementation office, John Jensen, explained in an e-mail: “The Project Agreement itself is several thousand pages and will not be final until the Contracts award/signing early next year.”

I guess not. Because it’s too long and because the real contracts don’t actually exist yet. Those are pretty unnerving reasons.

Interestingly, the Municipal Act places limits on delegation of authority and a city policy is “No delegation of powers and duties shall exceed the term of Council.” Meaning you can’t just hand off a big multi-term project like the LRT to staff.

“These specific delegations that exceed a single term of Council will have to be re-approved by a subsequent Council,” city clerk and solicitor Rick O’Connor explained in an e-mail.

Council is guaranteed to vote in favour of this contract. Yet they will have only read the summaries of what staff presume the final contract says. Should they accept this process?

No one expects councillors to pore over thousand-page legalese. That’s what the legal department is for, after all.

But you’ve got to hope, based on the giant mechanism their approval sets in gear, that when questions arise they won’t be content with “yada, yada” explanations.

Council seems to be glossing over the fine print as it celebrates deal

Serenity now! Jim Watson had a George Costanza moment and taxpayers should be worried.

The famous “yada, yada” popularized on Seinfeld is what you say at the end of a story to downplay the details. The irony being that the details are actually the crux.

On Dec. 5, Jim Watson announced the selection of the Rideau Transit Group as the winning bidder for the $2.1-billion LRT project.

There was much to be excited about. The project would come in on time and on budget. Best of all? The contractor will cover all cost overruns — “all of the risk transfer the city required of it.” Time for a photo op.

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